Cut a draft in half.
The line edit that shortens without flattening — keeps the argument and the voice, drops the parts you were only including because you wrote them.
You have a draft that's twice as long as it should be. You know it. You've stared at it for 20 minutes trying to see what to cut. This prompt cuts it for you, keeps your voice, and tells you what it cut and why so you can override the calls you disagree with.
THE PROMPT
Cut the following draft to approximately half its current length. Preserve the argument, preserve my voice, and — this is the key one — preserve the specific details that make the piece feel like it was written by a person who knows the subject. Return in this order: **Cut version** The rewritten draft, in one block. Ready to send. **Word count** "Original: N words. Cut: N words. Ratio: XX%." **What I cut and why** Bullet list, one per notable cut. Format: [what got cut] — [why]. Focus on: repetition, sentences that gesture rather than say, examples that don't earn their length, transitional phrases that were doing no work. **What I refused to cut** 2-4 bullets. Places where I could have cut for the length target but held back — because the specific detail carries the voice, or the point can't survive further compression. This gives you the override signal. Do NOT smooth out fragments, ellipses, or em-dashes if the original uses them — those are style, not fat. Original: [PASTE DRAFT]
**Cut version**
The point of LADLE is that you're already paying $20 a month for a general assistant. If some of that money can do a second job on the way out, you should be able to verify it — with a receipt, a reference number, and a URL. Not eventually. Not with a login. Not in a sustainability report footnoted on page 34.
That commitment shapes everything downstream. It caps how creative we can get with pricing (one plan, one price). It kills the retention playbook (offering a discount on cancel means offering to fund fewer meals). And it makes marketing easier — the receipts do the work testimonials would do at another company.
**Word count**
Original: 428 words. Cut: 118 words. Ratio: 28%.
**What I cut and why**
- Opening paragraph about competitors — you set up an argument you didn't return to; unnecessary framing.
- "We started LADLE because..." — the origin story, which readers don't need at this length.
- The parenthetical explaining ShareTheMeal — cite once, elsewhere on the site, don't repeat here.
- Three sentences of "the second-order effects are..." — the three effects themselves are stronger without the setup.
**What I refused to cut**
- "Not eventually. Not with a login. Not in a sustainability report footnoted on page 34." — three-part rhythm carries the voice; cutting one item would flatten it.
- "The receipts do the work testimonials would do at another company." — quotable line, worth keeping as the section's landing sentence.